Classical Music Recital at Chatham United Methodist Church: Thursday, January 12th at 10:30 am

On the morning of Thursday, January 12th at 10:30 a.m. at Chatham United Methodist Church, 460 Main Street, Chatham, the Suburban Music Study Club will present three noted local performers: Melissa Juska, voice, Peter Hill, piano, and Kelsey Lee, piano. They will perform works by: Chopin, Brahms, Mompou, Prokfiev, and Walker. All are invited to this free recital!

Melissa Juska, resident of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, is well known in the Monmouth and Ocean County areas for her oratorio and concert performances. A vocal soloist with the Ocean Grove Concert Band, performing in the Great Auditorium for two decades, Melissa has also appeared as a soloist with The Ocean County Community Chorus, New Jersey Chamber Singers and the Monmouth Civic Chorus. Her Opera credits include the Opera Festival of New Jersey, the Bloomfield Federation of Music, and the North Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She currently performs with Night on Broadway Company and Opera by the Sea, and is also a member of the Shrewsbury Chorale. Melissa is a graduate of Bucknell University.

Peter Hill is a also graduate of Bucknell University and holds master's degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of California, Davis. Peter has taught for the Cleveland Music School Settlement in Ohio, the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison, and for All Saints Episcopal Day School in Hoboken. Before relocating to the East coast, Peter served as Director of Choirs for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, CA. Peter is presently Music Director for the Chatham United Methodist Church, where he directs the adult choirs, praise band, instrumental ensemble, and ukulele orchestra. Peter is also Senior Director for Music For All Seasons, a non-profit organization that brings live music to hospitals, hospices, homeless shelters, and runs creative songwriting programs for veterans and youth at risk.

Kelsey Lee, 22, is a senior undergraduate student studying piano performance at the Eastman School of Music and optical engineering at the University of Rochester Institute of Optics. She is originally from Summit, NJ and studied piano with Beatrice Long. Kelsey was the Second Prize winner of the Suburban Music Study Club Scholarship Competition in 2018. Most recently, she is the 2022 Eastman School of Music recipient of the Presser Scholar Award, awarded to an undergraduate student with exceptional academic and artistic achievements at music institutions across the U.S. Kelsey has earned recognition on the piano in numerous competitions, including First Prizes in the Marian Garcia International Piano Competition Pre-collegiate Division, the biennial National League of Performing Arts Young Virtuosi Competition, and numerous Steinway and Sons Piano Competitions. Kelsey has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses with acclaimed pianists including Emanuel Ax, Ann Schein, John Perry, Rebecca Penneys, Jose Ramon Mendez, among others.

The Suburban Music Study Club was founded by Alice Malcolm-Switzer in 1899 under the name, The Music Study Club of Newark and the Oranges. The club eventually moved from Newark to the Maplewood-Millburn area and continued to meet in private homes. In 1980, the club moved to its present home, the Madison Public Library. Though, because of present renovations being undertaken at the library, the current season is being held at Chatham United Methodist Church. The Suburban Music Study Club has always promoted a high standard for classical music performance and is especially proud to support scholarships for talented and deserving young musicians.

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Category: Community | Local / Community